It was another late night at work (hitting 10 pm last Monday), when I got a call from my SO: The dog was going nuts! Barking at the front door, then running to the back door barking like crazy. In full territorial mode, and she was getting scared.

Told her to pull the Mak from its hidden location and keep it with her, along with the dog. Stay in the room that she is in. Not to open door for anyone until I told her it was clear. Told the work guys bye - jumped into the car and drove home like a madman.

When I got there - I cautiously walked around the front, CC still hidden but safety off in case I had to quick draw (did not want to scare the neighbors), and then walked around the house to the backyard. That was clear too.

I called her on cell to let me in, and swept the house - she apparently left door open while gardening and was afraid that someone slipped in. House was clean.

No signs of break-in, so it must have been a rat, squirrel or something to spook the dog. But better safe than sorry.

Lessons learned:
Get Police NON-emergency number programmed into cell phone.

I just found out that my normally pacifistic SO is not averse to clearing leather if the situation calls for it - makes me so happy!

Really glad that all worked out well for you, . . . man do I hate that "open door" thing. I even worse hate to clear my own house myself, . . . but I do it because it was almost designed so the bg couldn't hide.

FWIW, . . . my SO gave me that "whatcha gonna waste that good cash for on a CCW, . . this ain't Tombstone or Dodge City"; when I informed her I was gonna do it. That was last year and a couple of incidents ago.

Earlier this week, . . . I mentioned that I thought she ought to get hers also, . . . she just wanted to know when I was gonna sign her up.

Glad everything worked out for you. It's strange that a dog would run door to door for a squirrel or any other critter, it would seem that something or someone may have been at both doors. Upon hearing the dog sound out, decided that maybe it best to go elsewhere (another +1 to dogs).

As for your SO, it's amazing what can happen when they are in fear for their life, attitudes change, as well as looking for the best source of defense. I just tell all the anti's that I come into contact with that yes, guns can be used to kill, but until they come up with a better way for me to protect myself, a gun is what I will have.

most likely there was a threat and the dog scared him/her off. I wouldn't enter a house with a mean barking dog even with my handgun (if I had any other chance, like - as a bad guy - go somwhere else....).

My Vorsteh dog will only behave like that if there is a real threat around and that means people to damn close to our property or on my property. Lately there have been warnings from the PD to make sure all doors and windows are locked/ closed even when at home. Day or night beacuse there have been breakins by Polish immigrants (strawberry pickers and carpenters). Ill take the wife to the shooting range very soon to give her the drills on handling a semi auto shotgun and the 9mm. I say shoot to kill if they get in my house!!

Then again, your place might have been cased and promptly rejected as a, 'hard target'. Dogs are a great thing to have. By the way you appear to have handled yourself well by sweeping the outside of the property, first, BEFORE going inside.

(Just out of curiosity, have you ever analyzed your property for those spots where a BG would by most likely to hide while waiting for you?)

I fully realize that the police do not respond to 911 calls in a prompt manner. Witness the newborn stuffed down the toilet a couple doors down a few years ago.

However, you left something out.

Your SO and you both called the police, right? You may have driven home, but you didn't speed, right? And when you got home, you called on your cell phone and let your SO know you were home, right?

Think about the questions for a moment. If the answers were "yes", you did ok.

I was trained in hostage rescue, house clearing and all that good stuff. There is no way that I would secure my house myself instead of having the police do it if my SO came out.

Years ago, my late wife worked at a bank headquarters in Beverly Hills. The boss was at work. His wife was at home some 60 miles away. She called in a panic and said that a wildfire was coming over the ridge a couple of miles away. Being the gallant, he immediately rushed home - it took him 6 hours.

Here are some response times. The fire department calculates that if a structure is on fire, it is gone in less than 3 minutes. LAPD is running about 9 minutes on a 911 call. My sister lives about 2 miles away. Even with sliding through stop signs, it is about 4 minutes or I will have bottomed out the car a few times. The point is that people need to think out and perfectly practice responses.

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